Monday of Match Week

This is Match Week, which culminates on Friday, when I find out which residency program I will be in for the next three years.

Today at noon EST I found out that I matched into a residency program!

Last night I woke up three or four times because I was worried about the match. I didn't think it was likely that I didn't match. Rather I had some vague anxiety about if there was some computer glitch and my rank list got lost. Luckily that didn't happen!

But the Match system doesn't reveal which residency program I have match into.

That will happen on Friday at noon EST.

The end of the trail

I'm done with residency interviews and second looks! I finished last Friday.

Here's a summary of my travels:
44 days on the road from the end of October until mid January in
10 states for
14 interviews and
2 second looks

My first interview was New York City in the fall. 

My last interview was San Francisco, beautiful, sunny, and 70 degrees.

In between, I was in a grey Portland...

...and a frigid Chicago

... rainy New England

13,430 miles flown, including my first time traveling on Alaska Airlines, though not to Alaska (Unfortunately they were not all on the same airline so I haven't accumulated any free flights.)
633 miles by train (1 train cancelled due to snowstorm.)
511 miles by car and bus (1 megabus cancelled due to snowstorm.)

Bonuses:
1 celebrity hand shake (Mayor Rahm Emanuel)
1 Broadway play seen starring

Sirs Ian and Patrick in "No Man's Land"

2 knights (Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart)
10 day vacation between interviews to Turkey!

Cappadocia, Turkey

Hagia Sophia at sunset

The best part:
Many, many nights with my wonderful friends and couchsurfing hosts.

I am so grateful for my friends who hosted me while I was traveling. Not only did they give me a place to stay but they showed me around their town. This goes for long-time friends and the couchsurfing hosts I had never met in person before. Their hospitality and openness makes me hopeful that wherever I end up for residency, I will have a network of friends to support me. Thank you all so much.

It's the end of the interview trail but only the beginning of residency decision time!

At the Trailhead

I had so much fun last weekend Asheville. I visited a friend of mine from medical school. We hiked to Looking Glass Rock and took these photos. 

It felt like fall: leaves changing colors, cooler air, shorter days. It also signaled that my summer of away rotations was coming to an end. 

Monday I start on a different trailhead: the residency interview trail. I'll be flying out for my first interview of the season, literally a quick 30 hour stop. I'll be back in Atlanta to finish my last week at the CDC, then drive back across the country. The interview trail will begin in earnest then because I have several consecutive interviews.

Thank you for reading this blog.  I've had some kind of internet writing up since Xanga when I was in middle school. It's nice to have an audience!  

Is Downton Abbey making a case for primary care? (or is it just me)

Downton Abbey

It's no secret on this blog that I will be a family physician, as I have said in previous blog entries here. It's not secret that I believe in primary care, as I have said here.

But now I'm bringing in my non-medical life to this blog: I wholeheartedly love Downton Abbey. I have shamelessly watched every episode at least once. Downton Abbey is about a British aristocratic family of a husband, wife, and their three daughters, and their servants set in the 1910s-1920s. They have a huge mansion in the British country side. 

I tell you this because this is relevant to my medical life! Downton Abbey shows that family doctors are important. Dr. Clarkson is the GP in the village where they live. There aren't other specialists in the village because, well, it's a village. 

I won't give away any plot points from season 3 but I will say that Dr. Clarkson's relationship with the family members was important to the care he provided. In one episode, a specialist was called in by the family to assess Sybil, another daughter. But this specialist hadn't known Sybil before whereas Dr. Clarkson had known the three daughters since they were girls. Because of this Dr. Clarkson picked up on a mental status change in Sybil, another daughter, when the specialist missed it. This missed sign led to a serious deterioration in Sybil's health. 

In the most recent episode of Downton Abbey last night, Dr. Clarkson mentioned that he was proposing to the hospital board to opening an out clinic. Don't worry, this is a minor plot point so I haven't given much away. 

Dr. Clarkson: I'm just on my way to convince the board of the merits of an out clinic so people can come early for treatment. 

I think "out clinic" meant an outpatient clinic for less-acute problems. Later Robert, the patriarch of the family, dismissed at the idea of the out clinic saying that it would make people go to the doctor more often than is necessary. Basically Robert's character is old-fashioned so it doesn't surprise me that he disagrees. 

Robert: Aren't we encouraging a nation of hypochondriacs if people rush to the doctor at every twinge? 

Isobel: On the contrary I think it encourages people to look after themselves, and not become a burden. 

There, I'm quite pleased to find common ground between primary care medicine and Downton Abbey! 

Dr. Clarkson

Greetings from Atlanta

The non-essential staff at the CDC, including me, are at home because of the government shutdown. I'm supposed to be working in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention on a perinatal HIV transmission policies. It's really exciting stuff, though I've only been on the job for a week. So I've had a couple days off to be contemplative, or bored perhaps.

These past few months on away rotations I felt similar to when I studied abroad during my last year of college. The similarities is the constant stimulation of new experiences. There is always some new to do, a new restaurant to try, new people to meet. I'm in a new part of the country I had never been to before. I'm planning to go to a Korean Southern restaurant.

Today really felt like studying abroad because I had a Google Hangout with some classmates in Flint.When I was studying abroad I Skyped frequently with friends in the U.S. Today was actually for a med school committee I sit on, so it was for business. I've met other medical student doing this elective but it was nice to see some familiar faces of my classmates today.

Just like when I was in Denmark, I had so many new and exciting experiences but I also missed the familiarities of home. It's a bit wearing to always be navigating an unfamiliar city, always answering the same questions from new acquaintances. I never thought I'd say this but I kind of miss the Michigan fall. I find the climate here in Georgia strange.  It's literally 80-85 degrees here. It's October! I do a doubletake when I see Halloween merchandise in stores because it feels to me like summer.

I'm on my third and last away rotation of my fourth year. But I don't think I will feel like I'm home for some time. When my elective ends at the end of October, I will continue to travel. I'm planning to interview in November and December so I expect a lot of traveling, staying in hotels, and living out of suitcases yet. And still yet after that I will be living in a sublet apartment in Flint.

It had been and will be a nomadic year. Next summer I will have a place of my own, at an as-of-yet unknown city for residency. Maybe then I will feel like I am home.

I know the kind of doctor I want to be

When I think about all that I've done in the past few months I feel giddy like I'm in love. I'm currently in Chicago on an elective rotation. Before that I was in New York City for another elective. They were in family medicine and reproductive health.

It's wonderful because I'm learning all the things I want to know. During the last couple months I think I've better than the average 4th year student at placing a speculum and finding the cervix. I probably get it 9 times out of 10! Too bad I can't write "pretty good at finding the cervix" on my CV. I'd really like to. I'm proud of it.

It's wonderful because I feel I'm going to provide a really necessary service as a doctor. I had a patient thank me even though I really didn't do anything. I told her my name and, "I'm a student doctor working with Dr. So and So." Then I basically stood behind the doctor. But I feel very touched by this, more so than a lot of my other achievements because I think she really meant it.

It's wonderful because I'm meeting people like the kind I want to be, attendings, residents, and people who share and support my passions. They understand reproductive health and reproductive justice. They get it. They're really smart and down-to-earth.

Surprisingly, I've been treated better on my electives. Being treated like a person is something I believe all people deserve, even medical students. I hope it's because I know more medicine now because I do. I hope it's because I have better articulated what I want to do as a doctor because I have. I also hope it's because I've found "my tribe" because I have.

I will be applying to family medicine residencies that include training in family planning and a strong academic component. In the long run I'm hopeful that I will do all the things I care about: be a good full-spectrum primary care doctor for my patients and a proponent of this work via research or public health or advocacy.

80 hours

I was going to write about how the following week will be nightmarish for me because I have three calls in seven days. I thought to myself, that is SO MANY HOURS so I will add up the hours in quantify my misery and self-pity. 

(Call is when you get to the hospital at the regular time and stay at the hospital longer than than usual. For me the calls are until midnight.)

So I added up the hours I will be working. 

Monday       7a-12a 17 hours

Tuesday      7a-5p   10 hours

Wednesday 7a-5p   10 hours

Thursday     7a-12a 17 hours 

Friday         7a-4a     9 hours

Saturday     OFF!! 

Sunday       7a-12a  17 hours

It's 80 hours. 

I'm free* Friday at 4pm all the till Sunday 7am! That's 39 hours! 

*I'm going to sleep and study for an exam I have the following Tuesday. 

I thought to myself only 80? I thought it would be more hours. 

Then I realized that medicine has so messed with my mind because I think 80 hours shouldn't be that bad. Residents work 80 hours/week ALL THE TIME. There have probably been only a few others week in my third year that I have been at this hospital this much. So basically I felt like I shouldn't complain now because it's going to get worse when I'm working 80 hours/week for many months.